Motor running perfectly

The curtain for the VELUX EHF Champions League 2013/14 season has been lifted in two venues on Thursday with two matches of Group A. While Veszprém easily won at St. Petersburg by a 13-goal margin, Ukrainian newcomers Motor Zaporozhye took a draw at Rhein Neckar Löwen.

Group A:

Rhein Neckar Löwen (GER) vs. Motor HC Zaporozhye (UKR) 31:31 (15:13)

Major surprise by Ukrainian debutants. Motor Zaporozhye deservingly took a draw against Rhein Neckar Löwen in their first VELUX EHF Champions League match. Goalkeeper Richard Štochl and the seven late goals of Sergey Onufryienko were the keys to this success. Best Löwen scorer was Patrick Groetzki by seven goals.

“We have to realise that there are no easy opponents in the Champions League. We were simply not good enough to win this match,” said Löwen manager Thorsten Storm. Motor coach Sergey Bebeshko was really surprised. “Of course everybody dreamt of taking some points here, but to be honest, nobody could expect this result.”

Match winner Štochl made the right calculation: “This result is much better for us than for Löwen.” And Löwen coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson was not satisfied: “We gave one point from our hands, we were not fully focused in defence and attack.

Already the first half was wide open, though Zaporozhye never managed to take the lead. But their two metre defence wall stood like solid rock – and even when a ball went through, strong goalkeeper Štochl saved brilliantly.

Löwen had problems in scoring though their mastermind Alexander Petersson had his comeback for this season.

Zaporozhye played very patiently in attack, waiting for their chances, while Löwen tried it with full speed, especially by their wings Stefan Sigurmannsson and Patrick Groetzki, knowing that they have physical disadvantages in position attack.

And as the host still had problems in scoring by missing too many chances against Štochl, the “Motor” of Zaporozhye was running on all cylinders. The Ukrainian champions even did not get nervous when Groetzki secured the first four goal lead at 24:20 twelve minutes into the second half.

Zaporozhye reduced the gap goal by goal. With the German team getting nervous and only scoring two goals in ten minutes the 26:26 and 26:27 (52.) - a double strike by Sergey Onufryienko, who imprinted the last 12 minutes by scoring nearly every Motor goal  – was the logical consequence.

And from that moment on, the tension was spectacular. 32 seconds before the end at the score of 31:31, Löwen coach Gudmundsson takes his first time-out, but Uwe Gensheimer missed the last attack of the host, offering Motor the chance to win. But also the visitors failed in their last attack.

St. Petersburg HC (RUS) vs. MKB MVM Veszprém (HUN) 15:28 (7:12)

The Russian runners-up were taught a clear lesson by one of the main contenders for the VELUX EHF FINAL4. MKB MVM Veszprém left no doubt in they wanted to finish their mission at St. Petersburg in the clearest possible way.

Serbian newcomer Momir Ilić had the great honour to score the first goal of the 2013/14 VELUX EHF Champions League season – later St. Petersburg managed only to have an equal level nine minutes before the break, when the score was close for the last time at 6:8. And from that moment on Veszprém took full control.

Led by Ilić and team captain László Nagy, the Hungarian champions score a series of four straight goals for 12:6 – and the resistance of the host was broken despite the 2,000 spectators cheering for the Russians.

And after the break (7:12) it only took another seven minutes, before the result was double figured for the first time at 18:8. And as St. Petersburg had enormous problems in breaking through the Hungarian defence, they only score three goals in 15 minutes, while Veszprém forged ahead to 23:10 in minute 45 and sealed the fate of the match.

Veszprém coach Carlos Antonio Ortega was very satisfied with the performance of his team: “Especially our defense was very good, this is probably the best performance of this season so far. And after the break we scored a lot of easy goals.”

His Russian counterpart Dmitry Torgovanov  praised their opponents: “Already in the previous season it came as a surprise to me, why Veszprém did not qualify for the FINAL4 last season as they are one of the best teams in Europe. We caused too many mistakes in attack against a sensational defence of our opponent.”